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Dorothy Grove, NOTTINGHAM, NG8 3PJ

Private housing on Nottingham's ring road.

Robert Shaw opened in 1950 to serve the Ainsley Estate, just in time for the post-war bulge. Its pupils had a short walk along Southfield Road to the playing field, a triangle of well-maintained grass between the two railway lines north of Radford Junction - see Image] and Image

This detached house on the corner of Grassington and Northdown Roads was, as the faded painted signs for Whitbread and Guinness show, once a corner off-licence (or beer-off, as Nottinghamians called them). In the High and Far-off Times, under-age drinkers could buy pint bottles of Shipstone's Nutbrown Ale to drink whilst idling away the evening on the street corner opposite.

This view north from the railway bridge shows traffic stopping at the Beechdale Road lights. Western Boulevard, part of the ring road, was built in the 1930s at the beginning of the huge westward expansion of the city before and after the war. Until then, Beechdale Road was a footpath from Radford to Bilborough. The Baths are out-of-picture to the left, Robert Shaw Primary School and the Ainsley Estate to the right. Fifty-odd years ago I was nearly knocked off my bike here when turning right to go down the twitchel on to the estate.

The Ainsley Estate was planned before the Second World War but not completed until after it, as Nottingham continued to expand westwards. The school opened in 1950.

Located on the corner of Northdown Road (left) and Grassington Road in Ainsley Estate, this distinctive building was presumably some sort of grocery shop before it became a boutique. According to Wikipedia, "Bismillah" is an Arabic phrase meaning "in the name of God", and is perhaps best known in the English speaking world for its presence in the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.

Private houses were built at this end of the Ainsley Estate. The first of the council houses on Northdown Road are in the distance, where the road curves to the right. The Woodlands flats dominate the Radford skyline in the way the now demolished John Player & Sons cigarette factory once did. To their left is the spire of All Saints' Church, still further away.